'Dallas' Ratings Continue to Slump on U.K.'s Channel 5

LONDON - Ratings for the rebooted Dallas on U.K.'s Channel 5 have continued to slump for the show's second season, raising further questions about the show's future.

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The rebooted drama launched in the U.K. in September with audience figures that came in well above the network's typical viewership. The show, based on the popular 1980s series, averaged 2.9 million viewers in its Channel 5 debut. That amounted to a share of 13.1 percent of all people watching TV in Britain at the time. 

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But the second season, which U.S. network TNT ordered last summer, has been less of a draw in both the U.S. and U.K. Observers have mentioned the death of Larry Hagman and fading viewer interest.

The second season debut drew fewer than 800,000 viewers for Channel 5. Audience figures then slumped to around 600,000 for the season's second episode.

The network then quietly moved the show from the 9 p.m. to the 11 p.m. time slot as of last week. "Because Dallas has not performed as well as we wanted, we have moved it to a different time slot," a Channel 5 spokesman said. Last week's episode drew fewer than 330,000 viewers, a new low for the show.

The Daily Mirror on Monday reported that Channel 5 would not renew the expensive show amid the ratings slump. 

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But a source said that the British channel has a life-of-series deal for Dallas, meaning it will continue to get it until TNT cancels it. Amid declining viewership in the U.S., observers have questioned, though, whether Dallas would be renewed for a third season.

On TNT, Dallas opened its second season with 2.98 million viewers, down 58 percent from July's launch. It slipped another 25 percent to 2.23 million viewers in the second week of the second season. 

The soap has featured such original Dallas stars as Hagman, Patrick Duffy and Linda Gray.

Email: Georg.Szalai@thr.com
Twitter: @georgszalai